Continental Congress

On September 5, 1774 the delegates from 12 British Colonies gathered and formed the First Colonial Continental Congress of the United Colonies of America. On July 2, 1776 the Second Colonial Continental Congress declared 12 British colonies as Free and Independent States thus becoming the US Continental Congress. On March 1, 1781 the Constitution of 1777 was ratified replacing the US Continental Congress with the United States in Congress Assembled.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Articles of Association -
Extracts from the votes and proceedings of the
American Continental Congress [electronic resource] :
held at Philadelphia, on the 5th of September, 1774. :
Containing the bill of rights, a list of grievances,
occasional resolves, the Association, an address to the
people of Great-Britain, and a memorial to the
inhabitants of the British American colonies. : Published
by order of Congress Hartford] : Philadelphia: printed.
Hartford: re-printed by Eben. Watson, near the
Great-Bridge., [1774], 48 p. ; 22 cm. (8vo) - from the
Historic.us Collection.

Before
identifying the Continental Congress junctures in the evolution
of the United States and its democracies, we should first
consider the term “republic” in its
18th-Century American context. One of the most
important works on the classification of political systems during
the 18th Century was Baron de Montesquieu’s
work; The Spirit of Laws (1748). Montesquieu defined
three kinds of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic.
Regarding a confederation republic he averred:

This form
of government is a convention by which several
smallerstatesagree
to become members of a largerone, which they intend to
form. It is a kind of assemblage of societies that constitute a
new one, capable of increasing, by means of new associations,
till they arrive to such a degree of power as to be able to
provide for the security of the united body.
[1]

From the
inception of the United Colonies of America in
1774 to the Revolutionary War’s concluding Definitive Treaty
of Peace in 1784, the 13 Original Colonies and States formed
confederation republics that fulfilled Montesquieu’s
requisite “degree of power as to be able to provide for the
security of the united body. According, then, to the
philosophe’s definition, a colonial republic began with
the formation of an association titled, Continental
Congress: United Colonies of
America.

Students and Teachers of US History this is a video of Stanley and Christopher Klos presenting America's Four United Republics Curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. The December 2015 video was an impromptu capture by a member of the audience of Penn students, professors and guests that numbered about 200.

Alexander Hamilton,
in the same Federalist letter of November 1787 in which he quotes
Montesquieu,
goes further by defining the United States of America as a
confederacy, stating:

The
definition of aconfederate
republicseems
simply to be "an assemblage of societies," or an association of
two or more states into one state. The extent, modifications, and
objects of the federal authority are mere matters of discretion.
So long as the separate organization of the members be not
abolished; so long as it exists, by a constitutional necessity,
for local purposes; though it should be in perfect subordination
to the general authority of the union, it would still be, in fact
and in theory, an association of states, or a confederacy. The
proposed Constitution, so far from implying an abolition of the
State governments, makes them constituent parts of the national
sovereignty, by allowing them a direct representation in the
Senate, and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very
important portions of sovereign power. This fully corresponds, in
every rational import of the terms, with the idea of a federal
government.

In Hamilton’s terms, then, a “confederacy” relies not just on a
union of states under some form of federal authority, but
likewise the retention by each of these states of their own
governmental authorities, both subordinate to and “constituent
parts of…national sovereignty.”

Finally, for
our consideration, in 1788, United States in Congress
Assembled Delegate
James Madison in
Federalist No XXXIX defined the word “republic,” placing clear
emphasis on the derivation of its power from the
people:

… we may define a republic to be, or at least may bestow that
name on, a government which derives all its powers directly or
indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered
by persons holding their offices during pleasure, for a limited
period, or during good behavior. It is essential to such a
government that it be derived from the great body of the society,
not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it;
otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their
oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the
rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable
title of republic. It is sufficient for such a government that
the persons administering it be appointed, either directly or
indirectly, by the people; and that they hold their appointments
by either of the tenures just specified …
[2]

Reflecting
upon these definitions by Montesquieu,
Hamilton and Madison; this book puts forth the proposition that
there were three distinct republics that led to a fourth which is
the current government of the United States. Each Republic
is so delineated because it marks a divergent stage in the
evolution of the United States; the names designated to each
period are derived from the republic’s founding resolution or
constitution, as follows:

First
United American Republic:United Colonies of
America: Thirteen British Colonies United in
Congress[3](September
4th, 1774 to July 1st, 1776) was founded
by 12 colonies[4]
under the First Continental
Congress and
expired under the Second Continental
Congress; [5]

Second United American
Republic:The
United States of
America:[6]
Thirteen Independent States United in Congress[7](July
2nd, 1776 to February 28th, 1781) was
founded by 12 states[8]
in the Second Continental Congressand
expired with the ratification of the Articles of
Confederation;

Fourth
United American Republic:
TheUnited States of
America: We the People[11](March
4, 1789 to Present) was formed by 11 states[12]
with the United States Constitution of
1787’senactment
and still exists today.

With the four founding republics now identified, the following
nomenclature, derived from the acts of three unicameral and one
tripartite governing bodies, is offered for consideration:

·The
First United American Republic Government:The United Colonies of America Continental
Congress (U.C.
Continental Congress),
[13] with the name “Continental Congress”
being adopted in the Articles of Association[14] and “United Colonies of America”
being derived from various relations enacted by the
aforementioned U.C. Continental Congress;

·The
Second United American Republic Government:The United States of America Continental Congress (U.S.
Continental Congress),
[15] with the name “Colonies” being changed
to “States” by the Declaration of Independence;
[16]

·The
Third United American Republic Government:The United States in Congress Assembled (USCA or
Confederation Congress), with the name being adopted in the
Articles of Confederation;
[17]

·The
Fourth United American Republic Government:The United States House of Representatives and
Senate in Congress Assembled (Bicameral
Congress), The President of the
United States of America (U.S. President), United States Supreme
Court (U.S.
Supreme Court),
with the names all adopted in the Constitution of
1787.
[18]For the purpose of this
book the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in Congress
Assembled is abbreviated to the U.S.Bicameral
Congress.

Having
distinguished the four republics and their governing bodies, we
may now examine them one by one to discover if the
classifications and nomenclature meet what might become a
generally accepted framework for the U.S. Founding
period.

Was
Delaware, Virginia, or New Hampshire the first US
State?

The origin of
the United States’ current tripartite government can be traced
back to September 1st, 1774, when deputies from the colonies
first met at Philadelphia’s
City Tavern[19] on Second Street, just north of Walnut
Street (yes
the true birthplace of the Continental Congress and the
Presidency was in a Philadelphia tavern).
Although City
Tavern did not host a quorum of colonies, the tavern was the site
of the first caucus of congressional delegates on September 1,
1774. The discussions at this tavern meeting were significant as
the decision was made, with 25 to 30 delegates present, that the
members would wait until September 5th, for the additional
delegates to arrive before proceeding to business. Specifically
it was agreed that the Delegates would meet "Monday next" at 10
am at City Tavern to discuss where to conduct their first
meeting.Delegate Robert
Treat Paine wrote in his diary on September 1,
1774:

6 o'Clock
the Members of the Congress that were in Town met at City
Tavern & adjourned to Monday next.

Delegate
Samuel Ward recorded in his diary on September 1,
1774:

The
Delegates from N. Jersies & two from Province of N York
arrived, conversed with many Delegates & at Evening had a
Meeting at the New Tavern & took a List of those present,
in all twenty five.

Silas
Deane wrote to Elizabeth Deane on September 1,
1774:

The
Delegates from Virginia, Maryland, the Lower Counties, &
New York, are not arrived. We spent this Day in visiting Those
that are in Town, & find them in high Spirits particularly
the Gentlemen from the Jersies, and South Carolina. In the
Evening We met to the Number of about Thirty drank a Dish of
Coffee together talked over a few preliminaries, & agreed
to wait for the Gentlemen not arrived untill Monday Next,
before We proceeded to Business.

As
decided at City Tavern on September 1st, 1774, deputies
representing eleven colonies assembled at 10 am at the tavern.
According to Delegate James Duane:

The Members
of the Congress met at Smith's [Sic City] Tavern. The Speaker
of the Pensylvania Assembly having offerd the Congress the use
of the State house; & the Carpenters the use of their Hall,
It was agreed to take a View of each. We proceeded to the
Carpenter's hall. Mr .Lynch proposed the Question whether as
that was in all respects Suitable it ought not to be fixed upon
without further Enquiry.

I observed
that if the State house was equally convenient it ought to be
preferred being a provincial & the Carpenter's Hall[1] a
private House. And besides as it was tenderd by the Speaker it
seemed to be a piece of respect which was due to him, at least
to enquire whether the State House was not equally convenient.
The Question was however called for; & a great Majority
fixed upon the Carpenters hall.

John
Adams wrote of the event in his diary:

Monday. At ten the delegates all met at the City Tavern,
and walked to the Carpenters' Hall, where they took a view of
the room, and of the chamber where is an excellent library;
there is also a long entry where gentlemen may walk, and a
convenient chamber opposite to the library. The general cry
was, that this was a good room, and the question was put,
whether we were satisfied with this room ? and it passed in the
affirmative. A very few were for the negative, and they were
chiefly from Pennsylvania and New
York. [22]

The deputies who formed the Colonial Congress were not men who
enjoyed a national reputation. The colonial population was now
surpassing two million inhabitants with no “continental”
newspaper or magazine. Consequently, they were nearly all
strangers to each other with most never even having heard the
names of their new colleagues. There were, however, several
exceptions. John and Samuel Adams,
for example were Boston leaders identified with deep-seated
opposition to Great Britain and
known all over the colonies. Virginia Militia
Colonel George Washington had
achieved colonial celebrity through his service with British
regulars during the French and Indian War.
Peyton Randolph was
known as the judicious Virginia House of Burgesses’ Speaker and
the Colonial Virginia attorney general who struck down Lt.
Governor Dinwiddie’s Pistole Land Tax in a London hearing before
the British Lords of Trade.[23]
Patrick Henry was
known as an eloquent orator gaining colonial favor from his
memorable opposition to the Stamp Act in
1765. There were other delegates who were men of some
influence in their colonies, but the new congress had little
knowledge of their character. It was a new beginning.

The
first order of business for the delegates after the presentation
of credentials was the election of a presiding officer. Delegate
James Duane writes in his notes on the
debates:

The Names
of the Members were then called over; After which Mr Lynch
proposed that we shoud elect a President or Chairman and named
Mr Peyton Randolph Speaker of the Assembly of Virginia, who was
unanimously approvd & placed in the Chair. A Question was
then put what Title the Convention should assume & it was
agred that it should be called the Congress. Another Question
was put what shoud be the Stile of Mr Randolph & it was
agreed that he should be called the
President.

Congress
next considered the election of a Secretary and Delegate Lynch
put forth the name of Charles Thompson.
Charles Thomson
an orphan at 10 established himself through hard work as a
Philadelphia merchant and intellectual in the 1750’s. He became
embroiled in colonial politics 1760’s aligning himself with the
more liberal colonists into the 1770’s which was quite unusual
for a businessman. His conservative peers campaigned hard against
his election as a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental
Congress and were successful. His benefactor, Benjamin
Franklin, was a strong supporter for his congressional
appointment and despite being then known as the “Samuel Adams of
Philadelphia” Thomson was elected unanimously to be the Secretary
of the Continental Congress. Duane
writes:

The next
point was to fix on a Clerk or Secretary. Mr Thompson
was proposed by Mr Lynch.Mr. Jay observed that he had
Authority to say that one of the members of the Congress
was willing to accept the Office &
he conceived the preference was due to him [him
being James Duane]. To which it was answered that
such an appointment would deprive the Congress
of a Member as he would be too much incumberd by the
Duties of a Clerk to attend to the Trust for which he was
chosen. The Objection being thought Reasonable Mr Thompson was
appointed by the Stile of Secretary of the
Congress.

Thompson
would serve in this position in both the Colonial & U.S.
Continental Congress and the United States in Congress Assembled
for nearly 15 years.

By
his political connections, his long tenure of office,
and his executive and legislative
functions, Thomson influenced the course of congressional and
Revolutionary affairs. “Secretary” was the title given to
British to their executive department heads and Thomson was
Secretary in that sense and not in sense of a record keeper or
file clerk.

After the elections, the members turned to establishing the rules
of the new colonial body. It was not until the following
day that the debate concluded and the members voted against
forming a rules committee to further consider rules of
order. Instead they enacted the following resolutions on
September 6th,
1774, to conduct colonial business:

Resolved, That in determining Questions in this
Congress, each Colony or Province shall have one vote.—The
Congress not being possessed of, or at present able to procure
proper materials for ascertaining the importance of each Colony.
Resolved, That no person shall speak more than
twice on the same point without leave of the Congress.
Resolved, That no Question shall be determined
the day on which it is agitated and debated, if any one of the
Colonies desire the determination to be postponed to another day.
Resolved, That the Doors be kept shut during the
time of business, and that the Members consider themselves under
the strongest obligations of honour to keep the proceedings
secret, until the majority shall direct them to be made publick.
Resolved, unanimously, That a Committee be
appointed to state the Rights of the Colonies in general, the
several instances in which these rights are violated or
infringed, and the means most proper to be pursued for obtaining
a restoration of them.[25]

The
proceedings of this body were deemed private and this
“pledge of secrecy” would remain the rule in
the successive confederation republics. Secrecy would
also be vowed by delegates thirteen years later during the
Philadelphia Convention
that framed the U.S. Constitution of 1787.
Consequently, the debate to determine the name of this new
association is not a matter of public record. Historians
are relegated to reviewing delegate letters and colonial
resolutions to determine the origin of the name of the
association that would go on to enact and direct united colonial
measures.

The colonies
had individually passed 12 different resolutions naming the
Philadelphia gathering
and its membership in various different forms:

New
Hampshire …
General Congress; Massachusetts …
meeting of Committees from the several Colonies; Rhode
Island …
general congress of representatives;
Connecticut …
Congress of commissioners; New York …
Congress at Philadelphia;
New Jersey …
general Congress of deputies;
Pennsylvania…
Colony Committees; Maryland …
General Congress of deputies from the Colonies;
Virginia …
General Congress; South Carolina …
deputies to a general Congress;
Delaware …
general continental congress; [26]North
Carolina … general Congress.
[27]

It would be
Delaware’s
term, a Continental Congress that
was formally adopted on October 20, 1774, by a resolution known
as the Articles of Associationthat
implemented a British trade boycott [28]. The naming of the colonial
congress in the Articles of Association can be found in
the resolution’s first paragraph:

We, his
majesty's most loyal subjects, the delegates of the several
colonies of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay,
Rhode-Island, Connecticut,
New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania,
the three lower counties of Newcastle, Kent and Sussex on
Delaware,
Maryland,
Virginia,
North-Carolina, and South-Carolina, deputed to represent them in
a Continental Congress, held in the city of
Philadelphia,
on the 5th day of September, 1774.[29]

The name was
primarily chosen to distinguish this congress from the many other
congresses being held throughout the Colonies at that time.
The terms “Colonies of America,” “United Colonies,” and “Colonies
of North America” were all used in 1774 delegate letters,
colonial newspapers, and colonial congressional journals.
George
Washington’s
June 19th, 1775, Commander-in-Chief Commission, for
example, uses the term “United Colonies,” followed by the names
of the 13 members of the Continental Congress.
The name, the United Colonies of America,
was not introduced as part of a First Continental Congress resolution
until Thomas
Jefferson’s
Declaration Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Their
Taking Up Arms.

We the
representatives of the United Colonies of America now
sitting in General Congress, to all nations send greeting of
setting forth the causes and necessity of their taking up arms.
[30]

Jefferson’s
1775 Declaration was edited and approved on July 6th,
adding the word “North” to name the republic, the “United
Colonies of North America
.”
[31] Two weeks later, Benjamin
Franklin would,
in Article I of his Articles of Confederation,
also utilize the word “north”:

The Name
of this Confederacy shall henceforth be the United Colonies of
North America.
[32]

By January 1776, the Continental Congress UCA,
as well as the colonies themselves, would drop the word
“North,” referring instead to the Continental association as
the “United Colonies of America”:

Resolved,
By this Assembly, That Roger Sherman,
Oliver Wolcott,
Samuel Huntington,
Titus Hosmer, and William Williams,
Esqrs. be, and they are hereby appointed Delegates to represent
this Colony at the General Congress of the United Colonies of
America.
[33]

18th Century Journal of Congress open to September 5,
1774, recording the convening of the
First Continental Congress –
Image courtesy of the Klos Yavneh
Collection.

As can be
seen, the aforesaid First Continental Congress’
resolutions, rules, and various other acts clearly formed
“a body of laws” among the colonies,
establishing the First United American Republic: The United
Colonies of America: Thirteen British Colonies United in
Congress.The United
Colonies Continental Congress,
the new republic’s governing associationconvened from September
4th, 1774, to July 2nd, 1776, passing
resolutions, laws and acts necessary to conduct a war to win
independence from the British Empire. Although independence
was not declared until July 2nd, 1776, the United
Colonies Continental Congress (U.C.
Continental Congress)
acted as a quasi-central government, for the 13 Colonies, meeting
the definition of a confederation republic as evidenced by a
review of key U.C. Continental Congress Republic
milestones, including:

U.C. Continental Congress measures provoked British Regulars to
march out of Boston, attempting the capture of hidden military
supplies. In early expeditions, the British were not opposed,
found nothing, and returned to Boston. On April 19th, 1775,
however, shots were fired during the British advancement on
Lexington and Concord, launching the first military engagement
of the Revolutionary War;

On May 10th, 1775, Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold seize Fort
Ticonderoga in New York;

On June 15th, 1775, the U.C. Continental Congress appoints
George Washington commander-in-chief of the Continental
Army;

On July 6th, 1775 the U.C. Continental Congress approves a
United Colonies of North America Declaration … Setting Forth
the Causes and Necessity of Their Taking Up Arms against Great
Britain; On June 17th, 1775, the Battle of Breed's Hill forces
the retreat of the Colonial Minutemen;

On June 22nd, 1775, the U.C. Continental Congress issues two
million dollars in continental currency to fund the war
effort;

On July 21st, 1775, the U.C. Continental Congress considers
Benjamin Franklin’s Articles of Confederation as a possible
constitution for the United Colonies of North
America;

On November 13th, 1775, Major General Richard Montgomery
occupies Montreal Canada;

On December 31st, 1775, General Montgomery is killed in the
Battle for Quebec City and American troops retreat from
Canada;

On March 17th, 1776. The Continental Army led by General
Washington forces the British to evacuate Boston;

*Republican Party - - the political Party organized by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1791 that went out of existence over the schism between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Today, for the sake of expediency, political scientists incorrectly refer to it as the Democratic-Republican Party. Party Members at the time never utilized the name Democratic-Republican because it was the Republican Party.

**Acting US President - David Atchison never claimed that he was the President of the United States for one day on March 4, 1849. Political Scientists who make the assertion claim that because Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn in on a Sunday, March 4, 1849, and both the President and Vice President's term ended on that date the President pro-tempore of the U.S. Senate, David Atchison, therefore became the President under 1849 Presidential succession law.